Another Life - Netflix First Contact SF series

You both really think so with the kind of reviews it's getting?

IMDb gives it only 4.8/10 and the comments have now become Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Is Netflix performing pain-threshold psychology tests on its audience with this show?
Q: When should I rage-quit this show?
Q: Should the show be renamed to Space Homo's?

Rotten Tomatoes gave it 4.54/10 and said it was a "hodgepodge of science fiction homage, Another Life lacks the distinctive spark necessary to set it apart from the array of stories it aspires to be."

Metacriticgave it 33/100, based upon "generally unfavourable reviews."

Those are really terrible scores and if it were only the critics saying that you could ignore them, but it is viewers too.

I'm not sure such very poor scores are deserved. The story could be described as a "hodgepodge" of ripped-off ideas, but then the same could be said of Star Wars too. All stories can be boiled down to the same handful of basic plots - is it three, six, seven or thirty-six? And every spaceship based drama inevitably gets compared to Star Trek. As I said earlier, twenty or thirty years ago, we would think this was 10/10, but now it is being measured against The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica and an array of films and TV shows. It cannot compete.

On the other hand, I've seen plenty of better series cancelled that were liked and loved.
 
Execution is everything. While it may be true that the same sort of plots are reused it's up to the writers to present them in a way that's interesting and engaging to the audience. Making all your characters narcissistic sociopaths is the perfect way to annoy viewers. After that nobody is paying attention to any sort of plot.

And please don't bring up Firefly. Or Space Above and Beyond.
 
Dave said:
You both really think so with the kind of reviews it's getting?
Click to expand...

I said they have to roll a die, ie make a hard call. Another Life can be salvaged, but in order to do that they'll have to do a lot of work to get it right. Either way it's going to be harder to get these things in the small screen at the future, because it was such a huge cock-up.
 
I watched it and personally think they hadn’t a sense of where they were going with it until past the halfway episodes.

This show smacks of pantsing to me. So much going on but in an unedited, unrelated way.

Many things were derivative and the amount of handwavium was disturbing. I actually splutter-laughed at the reactor-distributor-cap.

Katee showed a nice softness to her Starbuck template and William was engaging. As for the rest. Nawp.

When this show is going up against stuff like The Expanse, there’s no hope for it.

Lots of lazy writing and derivative stuff.

Netflix, see me after class...

pH
 
Ain't that interesting?! I think it's all about her pull. Thing is, Netflix is known for giving second chance to controversial shows like the Another Life. They also have a chance to finish the story in ten episodes ... if they so choose.
 
I really wish but can't seriously contribute to this thread. I gave up on Another Life halfway the first episode.
 
Apparently Netflix considers a show to be viewed if you've managed to get through 70% of it. I managed, with difficulty, to get to the end of the first episode.

Netflix can do what they want as I plan on stopping my subscription shortly. I rarely watch it now.
 
I'm really quite surprised by this. The quality of Netflix shows had been getting steadily better. However, there is little on at the moment that I wish to watch. This didn't deserve a second series based on the first. Meanwhile, the BBC is making His Dark Materials and Runestaff. Netflix need to up their game.
 
Well, the season two popped up in the Netflix last week and I have to say that they went all over the place, but at the end they fixed it and it is that ending that makes this at least a good series. It is a very different take on the First Contact stuff and in places, the actors actually voice "Ef the First Contact."

The second season is more mature, they still don't have a completely functional crew but overall everything is a bit better and far more grim then in the first season. I'd say watch it with open mind and take it as a classic view on science fiction, in a way SyFy has done it for a long time.

Katee Sackhoff really pulls all her acting talents and the ending is quite amazing to watch as she struggles to contain the McGuffin within her body to deliver a blow. There are a number of classical tropes in the second season, and some that are boldly original. It is that originality that also adds to this series strengths at the end.

All I can that the ending really wrapped the series well, but it is unlike that we'll see a season 3 as that is going too far from the original scope. It would have to be called something else.

What did you think? Note that this has been on Netflix top ten for about a week now.
 
Forgot about the second season. Will give it a watch over the weekend.
 
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